By Sam Bush
It has been more than a month since Phillies fans have seen Domonic Brown, the underachieving outfielder who had one great month — May 2013 — in an otherwise mediocre career.
Brown, who left a spring training game March 20 with what was diagnosed as left Achilles tendinitis, has been rehabbing in the Phillies’ minor league system. In 12 games with Class A Advanced Clearwater and Triple-A Lehigh Valley entering Saturday, Brown is 8-for-41 (.195) at the plate.
“It’s an evaluation process,” said Sandberg.
Brown — who batted .272 (135-for-496) in 2013, with 27 home runs, 83 RBIs and an OPS of .834, but slumped to .235 (111-for-473) with 10 homers, 63 RBIs and an OPS of .634 in ’14 — has been working on his timing and told reporters he “wants to come back soon.”
Brown said he feels good and is just concerned about timing rather than his batting average and results. His 20-day rehabilitation assignment ends Tuesday, when a decision will have to be made on his status.
The Phillies previously announced they planned to use all of Brown’s rehabilitation time. They also stated they wanted Brown to face “advanced pitching” before he is activated.
Brown is not the only Phillies player rehabbing with Lehigh Valley. Right-hander Chad Billingsley was scheduled to make his third start for the IronPigs on Saturday night vs. Buffalo. He has a 3.24 ERA over his first two starts at Triple-A, working his way back from surgery to repair the flexor tendon in his right arm on June 24, 2014.
Billingsley, who was 81-61 with a 3.65 ERA in 219 career games (190 starts) with the Los Angeles Dodgers, has not pitched since April 15 due to a virus.
